For some years it has been considered desirable to strengthen at least the impact area of ice and field hockey sticks with some type of material that will absorb the shock of a puck or ball striking thereagainst, and tend to reinforce the hockey stick to prevent or reduce such breakage or tip splintering as normally occurs. One of the first attempts to so reinforce hockey sticks is disclosed in the United States Patent to Gardner et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,912,245, in which a molded sleeve or cap is provided for strengthening purposes. Also, if desired, there can be applied around the surface thereof strips of cord or tape fabricated from nylon, fiberglass, cotton, or the like to provide a rougher striking surface.
Further, in the Canadian Patent to Veillet Pat. No. 591,454 issued Jan. 26, 1960, there is taught the idea of using fiberglass sheets bonded to the wooden surface of the impact area. Both of the aforementioned products are relatively expensive in view of the mold cost etc. and/or the fabrication cost of the fiberglass sheets. Further, there are added assembly problems at the hockey stick manufacturers brought about by assembly and bonding the sheets to the hockey stick, and subsequent extensive grinding of cured edges for a smooth surface.
A further attempt to solve the problem is disclosed in the United States Letters Patent to Traverse U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,826, in which a textile sock having an open end and a closed end is knit, applied to the impact area of the hockey stick, and coated with a synthetic resin material. While this is somewhat of an improvement, it is still necessary to knit each sock separately, utilize a toe closing operation, which, as is well known in the textile industry, is both time consuming and costly in the knitting process. Therefore, due to the cost involved in obtaining such individually knitted socks, the expense of the reinforcing coating has been somewhat prohibitive, and not well received in the industry. Further, while the embodiment of Traverse may work on straight blades, the newer curved or shaped blades may present a problem in stretching the material tight.